The present invention relates to an improved vibration and shock isolation and damping apparatus. The purpose of such an isolator is to mitigate the effects of vibration and shock between the suspended mass and a supporting structure.
Isolators, and in particular, isolators having wire rope elements or equivalent structure as the active support members, are well known and utilized in a variety of industrial and military devices. While such isolators are intended to protect the mounted item from shock and vibrations occurring along all three spatial dimensions or axes, as a practical matter the configuration of the isolators results in a substantially greater stiffness and damping effect along one axis. Attempts to modify the isolator's response along any one axis results in substantial modification of the response along the other axes, preventing the design engineer from obtaining the desired optimum response along all three axes. Accordingly, a choice must be made as to the type of vibration of primary concern, with response along the other axes being severely compromised.